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The San Francisco Giants are quietly adding to their roster this winter, just in time for spring training and preparation for the 2026 MLB season.

Luis Arráez and the Giants have agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal, USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale reports.

Arráez, familiar with San Francisco as a foe, played for the NL West-rival San Diego Padres during the 2025 season.

Luis Arráez contract with Giants

Arráez’s new deal with the Giants is worth $12 million, according to USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale.

Arráez, who’s nickname is ‘La Regadera’ or ‘The Sprinkler,’ tallied 181 hits (best in the NL), 61 RBIs, and eight home runs with a .292 batting average in 2025.

He’s played seven MLB seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins and Padres, racking up 1,028 hits, 169 doubles, 36 home runs, a .317 batting average and .777 OPS. He’s added 31 stolen bases.

How does Luis Arraez fit with Giants?

Arráez is a 5-foot-10, 175-pound left-handed batter that adds to the arsenal brewing in San Francisco. The Giants will play him at second base, Arráez turning down other multi-year offers to stick at the position, per USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale.

The Giants looked to bolster their infield with the move. Arráez joins Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman in the San Francisco infield.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

The Ring 6 card leading up to the premier fight between Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez Jr. has been entertaining thus far. And not necessarily just because of the boxing.

The heavyweight bout between Jarrell Miller and Kingsley Ibeh featured one of the more bizarre (and hilarious) things ever seen in boxing, maybe even something that hasn’t been seen before.

In the second round, Miller took a hard punch from Ibeh that quite literally knocked his wig off his head. What was apparently a toupee came unglued and loose, detaching from Miller’s head.

Miller smiled at the hit that took his hair off, and he fully removed and tossed the piece into the crowd at Madison Square Garden after the round.

Miller ultimately won by split decision to improve to 27-1-2, including 22 knockouts. Ibeh fell to 16-4-1 with 14 KOs.

As for the toupee, it was passed around the crowd before being safely recovered and tended to by the president of the World Boxing Council, Mauricio Sulaimán, and British professional boxer Fabio Wardley.

This story has been updated with new information.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has been fined for an aggressive interaction with an official during a game against the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 30. 

James Jones, who serves as the NBA’s Executive Vice President/Head of Basketball Operations, announced that Atkinson was fined $50,000 for ‘aggressively pursuing, berating and making inadvertent contact’ with a referee.

Atkinson was assessed his second technical foul of the game and was ejected with 10:59 left in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s contest. The Suns went on to beat the Cavaliers 126-113, the loss snapping Cleveland’s five-game winning streak.

Atkinson was upset about a no-call on Suns guard Collin Gillespie, who was aggressively defended by Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill.

When do Cavaliers play next?

The Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 9 p.m. ET.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Amber Rose is sticking up for Charlie Kirk’s widow.

During a recent appearance on a Kick livestream with Sneako on Thursday, the 42-year-old model came to Erika Kirk’s defense, against those who criticize the way she reacted to Charlie’s death.

‘Yeah, I mean they talk s— about her too,’ Rose said. ‘Everyone grieves differently, and I tell people that, like maybe she feels like it’s her duty to keep him alive in a sense by kind of doing everything that he was doing. I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t tell someone how to grieve you know what I mean?’

Charlie, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. He and Erika had two children.

Following his assassination, Erika became the new CEO and chair of TPUSA, and has made public appearances at various events.

‘This woman should be kicked to the curb,’ liberal podcaster, Jennifer Welch, said on her ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast about Erika. ‘She is an absolute grifter, just like Donald Trump, and just like her unrepentant, racist, homophobic husband was.’

Elsewhere during the livestream, Rose responded to Ariana Grande’s support of the protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), urging Americans to skip work, school and shopping.

Grande posted an Instagram story encouraging her followers to stay home from work or school on Friday, in honor of the protest, writing, ‘ICE out! Nationwide shutdown! No work. No school. No shopping. Jan 30, 2026.’

‘Ariana Grande … I think she’s worth, I don’t know, $250–300 million dollars, telling people to not go to work, protest ICE. It’s like, ‘Girl, shut the f— up,’ Rose said.

She continued: ‘Do you want to give your money away to these people to stay home from work? Stop telling people to do that … I think anyone that tells people to not go to work, not go to school, not f—ing buy things for their family, and they’re worth $250-300 million dollars, they should shut the f— up.’

Rose famously supported President Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency in 2024, even speaking at the Republican National Convention.

At the convention, she told the audience she decided to ‘put the red hat on’ and ‘let go’ of any fear she had of being ‘misunderstood’ or ‘of getting attacked by the left.’ 

She later told Maxim in a January 2025 interview she was ‘canceled’ during the election.

‘Unfortunately, the ‘woke’ left cancels people for having a different ideology,’ she told Maxim. ‘Fortunately for me, I don’t give a f— and will always stand 10 toes down until the wheels fall off, regardless of what my beliefs may be. I used to be on the left and thought I was doing the right thing. That’s why it’s so important to have open conversations.’

‘On the left, there’s no objective truth. It’s only about feelings,’ she added.

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Former NASCAR driver Brian Vickers surfaced in newly released documents by the U.S. Department of Justice related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents, which included personal emails from the Epstein Files Transparency Act, were released Jan. 30, and Vickers is prominently featured in direct correspondence with Epstein dating back to at least 2012.

Vickers’ ex-wife Sarah Kellen has been named through the years as a co-conspirator in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, but the driver’s direct relationship with Epstein was previously unclear. Kellen has said she is a victim of Epstein, but in 2007, she was accused by authorities in Palm Beach, Florida, of helping recruit young women to provide sex for Epstein.

Friday’s release contained more than three million additional pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images regarding Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell of apparent suicide in August 2019.

In one message from March 2012, Vickers forwarded an email to Epstein with the subject line ‘Male Fairy Tail,’ which begins like a children’s fairy tale but pivots to sexually explicit material after the story’s princess rejects a prince’s proposal.

The files also highlight Epstein working behind the scenes for Vickers on NASCAR sponsorships after the news of the driver’s then-wife’s involvement with Epstein started to become public.

In 2013, Epstein emailed a redacted party to say that the general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing had reached out to ask about Vickers, concerned that a sponsor – Aaron’s – might get spooked and not follow through on a deal. Epstein says he then called the co-owners of racing team – Waltrip and Rob Kauffman – to ‘discuss any questions they may have.’

Epstein goes on to say that Kauffman and Waltrip were ‘good with it on a personal level’ but ‘have to keep the best interest of the team in mind,’ mentioning that the CEO of Aaron’s was ‘the kind of person who doesn’t even want someone holding a beer in their hands while wearing an Aaron’s shirt.’

Epstein claims in the email that Waltrip and Kauffman didn’t ‘intend to bring it to Aaron’s attention right now and are hoping they won’t find out.’ The company went on to sponsor Vickers for the 2014 season.

In February 2019, Vickers sent an email to Epstein with the subject line ‘Thought you would like this,’ containing the message ‘Happy Valentine’s Buddy’ and a video attachment.

Vickers, who won the Busch Series championship in 2003, won three times on the NASCAR circuit and retired from racing in 2015 following health concerns.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

House Democrats are poised to rebel against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spending deal with the White House, Fox News Digital is told, an act that could prolong the ongoing partial government shutdown. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that the plan by Republicans to fast-track the legislation on Monday evening would fail, four House GOP sources told Fox News Digital.

That means Johnson will need to lean heavily on his razor-thin House GOP majority to pass the bill through multiple procedural hurdles before it can see a final vote, likely Tuesday at the earliest.

The federal government has been in a partial shutdown since the wee hours of Saturday morning after Congress failed to find a compromise on the yearly budget by the end of Jan. 30.

Some areas of the government have already been funded, but spending for the departments of War, Transportation (DOT), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others, is now in question.

House Democrats do not feel bound by the deal their counterparts in the Senate struck with President Donald Trump’s White House, the sources told Fox News Digital. 

The sources said House Democrats are also frustrated that Schumer put them in a position where they were expected to take the deal on.

‘Democrat division creates another government shutdown,’ one House Republican told Fox News Digital.

But it could be difficult for House GOP leaders to corral all the votes needed as well. Multiple Republicans have already expressed concerns about the compromise requiring them to negotiate with Democrats on reining in Trump’s immigration crackdown, while others like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., are pushing their own priorities to be included in exchange for their support.

Luna told Fox News Digital that she would not support the legislation if it did not include an unrelated measure that would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process, a separate but widely-accepted GOP bill.

Johnson told House Republicans in a lawmakers-only call on Friday that he hoped to pass the legislation under ‘suspension of the rules,’ which would fast-track the bills in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority of the chamber to two-thirds.

But now the House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most chamber-wide votes, will be considering the legislation on Monday afternoon.

Then it must survive a House-wide ‘rule vote,’ a procedural test vote that normally falls on party lines, before voting on final passage.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., signaled to Fox News Live anchor Aishah Hasnie earlier on Saturday that he expected Jeffries to go rogue on Schumer.

‘We can’t trust the minority leader to be able to get his members to do the right thing. That’s the issue,’ Emmer told Hasnie.

The deal that passed the Senate on Friday combined five spending bills that already passed the House, while leaving off a bipartisan plan to fund DHS.

Instead, it would fund DHS at current levels for two weeks while Democrats and Republicans could negotiate a longer-term bill that would also rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats demanded that in the wake of federal law enforcement-involved killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during anti-ICE demonstrations there.

But Jeffries made no promises on the deal after it passed the Senate Friday, saying in a public statement, ‘The House Democratic Caucus will evaluate the spending legislation passed by the Senate on its merits and then decide how to proceed legislatively.’

A failure to move forward with the plan quickly risks the limitation or pausing of paychecks for military service members, airport workers, as well as putting funding for natural disaster management and federal healthcare services into question.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries, Schumer, and Johnson’s offices for further comment but did not immediately hear back.

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The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Saturday alerted U.S. citizens of ongoing security operations north and south of the embassy and in Croix-de-Bouquets. 

Heavy gunfire was reported in the Haitian capital, prompting U.S. government personnel to halt all movements, according to an alert from the Department of State.

The embassy remains open for emergency services.

Officials urged nearby U.S. citizens to avoid the area and monitor local media for updates.

Armed gangs control large portions of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, according to the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). 

Croix-de-Bouquets, one of the areas referenced in Saturday’s security alert, has long been considered a ‘400 Mawozo’ gang stronghold.

‘400 Mawozo’ gang leader Joly Germine, 34, of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to life in prison in December for his role in the 2021 abduction of 16 American citizens, including five children, Fox News Digital previously reported.

The victims, with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, were on their way back from an orphanage when they were taken hostage, according to the Justice Department.

The State Department currently maintains a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory for Haiti, citing kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The World Baseball Classic will be without several of its top stars because they have been unable to acquire insurance coverage in case they are injured during the tournament.

No team has been hit harder than Puerto Rico, which couldn’t secure insurance coverage for several of its biggest names in Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Jose Berrios and Emilio Pagan.

Puerto Rican officials are so frustrated that they have considered pulling out of the WBC, federation president José Quiles revealed.

The Major League Baseball Players Association said that Lindor is unable to play in the WBC because of an elbow procedure early in the offseason, although he will be fine to participate in spring training for the New York Mets.

“Francisco is obviously disappointed that he was be unable to participate,’ the MLBPA said in a statement. “However, because of WBC insurance constraints, he is ineligible to play in WBC games. He was participate fully in all spring training activities.’

Houston Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve was also denied insurance and won’t be able to play for Venezuela in the WBC.

“Due to the criteria for WBC insurance coverage, Jose Altuve was looking forward to participating in the WBC and representing Venezuela, but unfortunately is not eligible to do so,’ the MLBPA said in a statement.

Venezuela will also be without Dodgers World Series hero Miguel Rojas, who announced on his Instagram account that he was also denied insurance.

“Today I am very sad,” he wrote in Spanish. “A true shame I can’t represent my country and put that flag on my chest.”

The inability to secure insurance kept three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw from participating in the WBC in 2023 because of his back issues. Now that he’s retired, there’s no need for insurance and he’ll be on this year’s USA team.

MLB requires all players on their 40-man roster to have an insurance policy that protects the team if a player sustains and injury during the WBC that requires them to miss games during the regular season. Most of the insurance issues are over a player’s prior injury history.

Players like Edwin Diaz and Altuve who were injured in the 2023 WBC were covered by insurance policies, and were still paid, but not by the team.

Diaz missed the entire 2023 season when he suffered a complete patellar tendon tear in his right knee celebrating Puerto Rico’s win over the Dominican Republic. Altuve suffered a broken right thumb when he was hit by a pitch from Team USA pitcher Daniel Bard. He missed the first 43 games of the 2023 season.

There have been no publicly known cases of any player this year who were prevented from joining Team USA because of an inability to acquire insurance.

Yet, perhaps no one in the tournament is taking a bigger financial risk than two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers. He’s a free agent after the season and is expected to secure the largest contract by a pitcher in MLB history, perhaps exceeding $400 million.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Shouts of ‘Trump act now!’ filled the sunny Saturday afternoon on New York’s Fifth Avenue as hundreds of anti-Iranian regime protestors denounced the theocratic regime in Tehran and called for the U.S. to take action against Iran.

‘We want freedom for the Iranian people,’ said protester Sarah Shahi. ‘We want this theocracy that has been taking people’s rights away to be taken out with whatever means necessary. We need help when so many people have been killed.’

The protesters gathered across the street from the residence of Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations and called for the regime in Tehran to be toppled.

The ornate 19th century limestone townhouse was originally purchased by the Iranian government under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran who ruled from 1941 until 1979. It has been the official home of the country’s UN representative ever since. Protests have been rare at the location, but at some point, overnight, someone spray-painted the words ‘terrorists’ and ‘killers’ on the front facade.

The building’s location is one of the most exclusive on the Upper East Side, diagonally across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and less than a block away from the former residence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

One protester’s sign showed a photograph of current Iranian UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani with the words ‘A terrorist lives here.’

‘For the people of the Islamic republic to be residing here is just so unjust,’ said Shahi. ‘But it is the closest thing we have to an embassy’ as a protest location.

Since Iran does not have diplomatic relations with the United States, the building is the only Iranian government-owned property in the country.

President Trump has ordered U.S. warships to within striking distance of Iran as he considers potential attacks against the regime’s nuclear program, oil and military targets. The buildup is in response to Iran’s continued support of terrorism and its brutal mass killings of protesters, with estimates saying as many as 30,000 people have been killed for participating in anti-regime street demonstrations.

The protesters in Manhattan are supporters of the late shah’s son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has been speaking out for weeks against the regime as its barbaric crackdown continued. Pahlavi has been in exile for 47 years, since his father fled and the Iranian revolution ushered in the hardline religious Anti-American regime of the Mullahs.

The chants from the protesters were no less impassioned than those of their brethren who have flooded the streets of Iranian cities. Signs demanded ‘End the regime in Iran,’ and ‘Brave Iranians are fighting on the ground. The U.S. and Israel must act against a common enemy now.’ Other signs proclaimed, ‘No to the Islamic Republic regime,’ and ‘Make Iran Great Again.’

The protesters say they are waiting for President Trump to take military action against the regime so that the nation can finally taste freedom.

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday touted sweeping Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operations at Miami International Airport, saying the efforts have played a critical role in protecting U.S. transportation networks.

Speaking at a news conference at the airport, Noem said TSA officers prevented more than 10,000 people with suspected ties to narcoterrorism from traveling over the past year. She added that an additional 85,000 people linked to terrorism or listed on the U.S. terrorism watch list were also stopped from boarding flights.

‘What has happened here at this airport is that over the last year they have prevented over 10,000 individuals from traveling that had ties to narcoterrorism, 85,000 individuals that had similar ties to terrorists and to terrorists on the watch list in the United States,’ Noem said. 

Noem also highlighted Miami International Airport’s human trafficking unit, which conducted more than 2,200 inspections in the past year. Those efforts resulted in 24 arrests related to child exploitation.

The unit also confiscated 85 firearms from travelers — 82 of them loaded at the time of discovery, according to Noem.

‘It’s incredible the work that they have done to keep people safe, which is the mission that the Department of Homeland Security seeks to do every single day,’ Noem said.

One of the busiest airports in the world, Miami International employs more than 1,700 TSA officers and serves an average of 70,000 passengers per day. Officials recently screened nearly 100,000 travelers in a single day, setting a new record on Jan. 4. More than 25 million passengers traveled through the airport in 2025, Noem said.

As travel continues to surge, Noem pointed to a $9 billion airport modernization project aimed at strengthening security. TSA is contributing $100 million to the effort, alongside DHS’s previously announced $1 billion nationwide investment in upgraded security technology.

Planned upgrades include expanded canine units, advanced computed tomography scanners, and enhanced imaging systems.

Noem said the investments are especially critical as the U.S. prepares to host major global events, including the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

‘That billion dollars will make sure that we continue to keep America safe,’ Noem said.

During the event, Noem was also asked about the possible release of body camera footage related to Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and licensed concealed-carry holder who was killed this month during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. 

‘The FBI is leading the investigation, and as it goes forward, that will be at their discretion,’ she said. 

Addressing the upcoming expiration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, Noem said the program was never intended to be permanent and accused the Biden administration of abusing it.

‘Any individual who is from a country where TPS is expiring has an opportunity to appeal that and to look at other programs that they may qualify for, and they have a number of months to do that,’ Noem said. ‘They should reach out to the State Department, they should reach out to the Department of Homeland Security, and we will help them with that.’

DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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